Buying a 49-euro ticket online is unnecessarily complicated

After the success of the 9-euro ticket, the successor is now coming. The 49-euro ticket – also known as the Germany ticket – will start on May 1, 2023. But buying online is “unnecessarily complicated”, criticizes the Federal Association of Consumer Advice Centers.

Last summer, the 9-euro ticket led to a boom in the number of users of local public transport. Now the 49-euro ticket should build on this success.

The so-called Deutschlandticket is only valid from May 1, 2023, but advance sales are already underway. He has this Federal Association of Consumer Centers now an online market check subjected.

49-euro ticket in the online market check

The market check of the 49-euro ticket by the Federal Association of Consumer Centers is not particularly rosy. According to the VZBV, buying the ticket is “unnecessarily complicated”.

The focus of the criticism is the lack of information on how to buy the 40-euro ticket. But the websites of the transport companies and associations also do not provide sufficient information for changing from an existing subscription.

“The Deutschlandticket is intended to make local transport easier and get more people on the bus and train. However, this will not succeed if the transport companies and associations provide insufficient or no important information for customers on their websites,” explains VZBV board member Ramona Pop.

It is time “for a transparency offensive on the Deutschlandticket” and not just for a price offensive. The providers would have to “absolutely improve” here.

The difference to the existing subscription

Many public transport providers are currently promoting a change from the existing subscription to the Deutschlandticket. However, as the VZBV market check revealed, 10 of the 15 providers surveyed lack a comprehensible overview of the differences between the subscriptions. According to the VZBV, a “well-founded decision” about a subscription is “unnecessarily complicated”.

Even the change from the existing subscription to the 49-euro ticket does not go smoothly and uniformly. Because customers would have to check carefully whether their subscription is automatically converted or whether they have to trigger it themselves.

This is particularly confusing, as it also happened in the check that one and the same provider offered both options.

Will the 49-euro ticket become a purely online ticket?

For the market check, the Federal Association of Consumer Centers also looked at the availability of the 49-euro ticket. In many places, the focus is apparently on digital sales.

Five of the 15 providers examined would explicitly exclude sales at the counter or in the customer center. Four others do not provide any clear information.

“The Germany ticket must be easy and flexible for everyone to acquire – even without a smartphone or Internet,” demands Pop.

Instead of one ticket for everyone, politics and the local transport industry have created such high hurdles that consumers run the risk of being left out.

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